After years of playing board games, we've come to appreciate an easily overlooked game component: the score sheet.
Score sheets aren't included in all games. Many rely instead on markers and tracks to keep score. But we've come to the opinion that tally sheets are superior to victory point tracks.
Why? Because they create a record of past plays. We keep our old score sheets. They get thrown back in the game box when we pack up the game. It's so fun to look at them. To see who played. To see who won.
A tally of total wins is not the point, but a pattern of wins is interesting. Some games in our house have gained the reputation, "You always win when we play that one. I always lose." Thanks to tally sheets, opinions like these are easy to check. "I know it feels like that, hon. But actually you're up two games on me, and I've got the receipts to prove it."
We've also taken to putting a date on our tallies. This adds another dimension to our gaming. A quick glance at the last tally reveals how long it's been since we played the game. Even games we consider favourites, and that we think we play often, go through fallow periods. "The last time we played this was two years ago! Seems just like yesterday."
And some score sheets get annotated with exclamation marks, and sad faces, and other little comments to commemorate particularly ignoble wins and losses. I guess it's the historian in me, but I find these bread crumbs to the past delicious.
Note: this score sheet includes a column for the sixth lost city originally added to the game as an expansion, but now included in the latest edition. The latest art depicts a beacon shining into space from an alien landscape. I named this Pharus, the mysterious alien lighthouse. The beacon light has been observed but whence does it come? The dark side of the moon? An asteroid? Astronomers are busy trying to find out, and engineers are already working on a craft to reach the stars.